The invention concerns a self-service kiosk which dispenses vouchers, or coupons, to settle a balance owed to a customer in connection with a transaction.
The Inventors have identified a need for delivering fractional currency amounts to customers in certain situations. The invention achieves delivery of these amounts, but without using the fractional currency itself. The following discussion explains the need, and why it arises.
Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, are in widespread use. One service which the ATM provides is to accept the deposit of bank checks from customers. The ATM may dispense currency to the customer, based on the check, depending upon the agreement existing between the customer and the owner of the ATM.
However, if the ATM does dispense currency, the amount will probably not equal the full amount of the check, because the full amount may include fractional values which can only be covered by coins. For example, in the U.S., monetary amounts contain two parts: a xe2x80x9cdollarxe2x80x9d amount, together with a fractional amount stated in hundredths of a dollar, commonly called xe2x80x9ccents,xe2x80x9d which is an abbreviation for xe2x80x9ccenti-dollars.xe2x80x9d
The latter amount must be handled by the transfer of metal coins. Many ATMs handle such coin-amounts by crediting the coin-amount to the customer""s bank account.
The ATMs could dispense coins, but that approach imposes significant cost on the owner of the ATM, in terms of (1) the monetary costs of purchasing and maintaining the coin-dispensing mechanism, and also (2) the space required to store the coin-dispensing mechanism. Many ATMs are located in retail environments, where space is costly.
Thus, today, reasons exist why coin-dispensing mechanisms are not installed in ATMs. But a need for such mechanisms is increasing, and it can be explained as follows.
Consumer demand is arising for extension of ATM services to customers who, for various reasons, do not maintain bank accounts. The reasons may include (1) a distrust of banks, (2) a preference for dealing exclusively in cash, or (3) an infrequent need for a bank account. The last factor, infrequent need, promotes avoidance of a bank account because many banks impose penalties on people who maintain small accounts, or who write checks infrequently.
Even though these people lack accounts, they must still cash checks, such as payroll checks and government checks. It would seem that these checks could be cashed at a bank, but that is not done, for two primary reasons.
The first is distance: the banks on which the checks are drawn will cash the checks, and may be legally required to do so. However, visiting the drawee-bank often requires travelling a long distance.
The second reason is that other banks, in general, will cash the checks, but only if the customer maintains an account at the bank. But, as stated above, the people under consideration do not maintain bank accounts.
Therefore, people lacking bank accounts must travel long distances to cash checks. To avoid the travel, many of these people cash checks at so-called xe2x80x9cmoney stores,xe2x80x9d which impose large fees.
ATMs are being provided with the facility to provide check-cashing services to such people. However, as explained above, many of the checks will contain fractional amounts. The fractional amounts cannot be credited to an account for such people, and coin-dispensing mechanisms for settling the fractional amounts are not a preferred option.
An object of the invention is to provide an improved self-service kiosk.
A further object of the invention is to provide a self-service kiosk which resolves the problem of dispensing coins to customers.
In one form of the invention, a kiosk issues coupons to a customer to satisfy a balance owed the customer. The coupons will be treated as cash by merchants associated with the kiosk.